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Letter to the editor

Neighbors rise in anger as three palm trees fall

A path is cleared for construction trucks.

By CRISTINA SILVA
Published July 11, 2007

Workers load three palm trees onto a truck Monday in Vinoy Park after cutting them to clear a path for construction workers.
	[James Borchuck | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [James Borchuck | Times] Residents of Vinoy Place condominiums, background, are upset that workers chopped down three sabal palms so the vehicles could access a new floating-dock marina under construction.

ST. PETERSBURG - The removal of three sabal palms from Vinoy Park has upset several residents in the waterfront neighborhood, who are outraged that the trees were chopped down at a private company's request.

On Monday, the palms were cleared from the park to make way for construction trucks completing work on the Renaissance Vinoy Resort and Golf Club's new floating-dock marina.

The trees will be replaced with new sabal palms at the expense of Misener Marine Construction once the company completes the project in October, said Linda Seufert, the city's park operations manager.

The construction workers disposed of the palms, which were fully mature and most likely could not have been replanted, Seufert said.

"We would have tried to save them, but they would probably not have kept for a long period of time," she said. "In a way, it's actually a good thing. The trees are older and not in the best health."

In the past, construction workers have brought in supplies by barge, but Seufert said Misener employees determined it would be easier to approach the waterfront through Vinoy Park, which hugs the bay.

The city-bought sabal palms will cost about $300 per tree to replace, Seufert said.

But some residents questioned the tree removal.

"To just come in and whack these trees down, I find that to be environmentally irresponsible," said Kim Chesney, a resident of Vinoy Place, a condominium complex across from the park.

Chesney was sunbathing outside her townhome when she saw workers chopping down one palm tree after another and piling the tree trunks into the bed of a truck.

Shocked, she ran across the street in her bathing suit and demanded to know what the workers were doing with the palms.

"They are being paid to repair that marina, and so they want to come in and deface our public parks to do it?" Chesney said. "It just doesn't make any sense to me."

Cristina Silva can be reached at 727 893-8846 or csilva@sptimes.com.

[Last modified July 10, 2007, 20:59:21]